Developer Jagex has announced a new game mode for both RuneScape and Old School RuneScape called Fresh Start Worlds. At first glance, it sounds great, but the fine print has left the community feeling disgruntled.
Set to begin on September 12, this game mode will provide players with the opportunity to experience RuneScape with a fresh economy. Everyone starts over without skills, completed quests, or items. They’ll have to work their way up from scratch. To speed up the process, players can to take advantage of greatly enhanced experience rates and unique progression rewards. Those that take part can also earn a new tradable ultra-rare halo, a pet, and alternative skill cape overrides, plus a scalable armor set and weapon.
However, at the bottom of the announcement blog, there is some concerning fine print. RuneScape players who want to try out the Fresh Start Worlds will need a new account and a new membership to do so. Those with long-term existing membership subscriptions cannot use them. Even worse, despite being a supposedly competitive game mode, microtransactions will be enabled. Treasure Hunter will be accessible eight weeks after the event’s launch, with Bonds and RuneCoins available from day one.
Bonds being buyable defeats the point of the game mode. Amongst other benefits, the main reason players buy bonds is that they can be sold for in-game money. Currently, a bond on RuneScape is worth 54 million gold. Even if they are worth less in these new worlds, players who buy them will still have an advantage.
A showcase of the rewards up for grabs. (Source: RuneScape.com)
Old School‘s take
Old School RuneScape‘s version of Fresh Start Worlds won’t have increased experience, microtransactions, or unique rewards. Its only features are that ironmen accounts can’t be made, and it will have a reset economy. It still requires a new account, though, and just like RuneScape‘s version, you can later transfer this account into the main game. Once the event ends, six months’ worth of items will be dumped into the main game’s economy. This will most likely crash the value of most items, devaluing people’s accounts.
